Has anyone incorporated the two together, especially the mechas? Personally, I don't see a tremendous difficulty especially after reading the "Mark of Death" trilogy and the warforged "walking" city (sound familiar .)

I played in an online DragonMech game that used Warforged from Eberron, and that worked pretty well. Never taken pieces of DragonMech into Eberron, though. I'm not actually that knowledgable about Eberron.

I actually owned the Eberron campaign book at one time, but I sold it when I was poor.

You mean rpg developers are not these multimillionaires who write an hour a day and spend the rest of the time playing while servants cater to their every need?!? Now you're going to tell me all writers are not as rich as Stephen King and J.K. Rowling.

mythfish wrote:

You might try starting this thread over there on the Gleemax forums...there are some DragonMech fans over there and there was a really interesting thread about using psionics in DragonMech there.

There was a thread a long time ago about dragonmech in eberron on the eberron boards. I can't remember much, but my take was that the Lord of Blades, in the mournland, had created/discovered steamtech and was using it to help with his army, as there a a finite number of warforged, but more than enough material availaible to enhance each warforced through the power of steam (steamborgs, assimilated pilots, you get the idea).

_________________The only difference between a mage and a young boy’s pockets is that you’ll find more candy in the child’s
-someone not me

Actually, I've recently been contemplating this exact thing. I'm new to DragonMech, but have been DMing Eberron since it was first published. Actually, I've been playing D&D since two years after it was first published, but I digest....

Eberron seems tailor made to host a mech insurgence, or at least ripe for porting ideas over to Highpoint. The first and most obvious thing is all the repair X damage spells. Artificer/Coglayer or Artificer/Constructor seem like natural multi-class options.

The thing I'm wrestling with is the different concepts of "technology". In Eberron their advancements are basically along the lines of forcing elementals into Kyber Shards as a power source for transportation. An airship is propelled by a bound air or fire elemental, while land-bound vehicles use earth elementals. Would an Eberron mech use a fire elemental for heat and a water elemental for steam? That would pretty much negate the steam engine wouldn't it?

I am sure those inventive little Zilargo gnomes would be just as happy making clockwork mechs and adding an earth elemental to wind it up and give it an earthglide ability.

But Eberron has already taken the concept one step further... warforged. A warforged titan is nothing more than an animated mech. The warforged themselves are animated and awakened constructs for all practicle purposes. According to the source material they are basically masterwork armor filled with an elemental spirit, similar to the spirit from the elemental plane of water that animates a nimblewright.

Aside from that, my plan is to drop a Coglayer 5/Constructor 5/Steam Mage 5 into eberron via a transitive plane and see what direction my players want to take it. At worst they will want to seize his enchanted steamgun, at best they will help him find the way back and give him some good ideas on how to help the people of Highpoint (and maybe a few juicy fruits and vegetables to make him rich).

The party is currently in the presence of an NPC golem-building mage, so at the very least I can have the two of them hang out and brainstorm in the background of the setting. That way my players won't be too surprised when a mech exits the elemental assembly plant in Zilargo with a fire elemental in the boiler instead of needing fuel.

Once in Eberron, the gnomes will most likely become the premier mech builders, with other races only taking notice when power starts to shift in favor of the entity(ies) with the mechs. Count on house Cannith getting their fingers into this quickly. Lyrandar and Orien will be racing to get their hands on them. Especially Orien to guard the caravans and provide overland secured deliveries.

Steam cannons shooting down Lyrandar airships could swing the balance in Orien's favor quite firmly... until the first steam-powered gunships take flight, that is.

I haven't read anything about a walking city for the warforged. Is this a novel or a sourcebook that has this in it?

Anyhow... I don't see a tremendous difficulty blending the two settings. Of course in Eberron the thirteenth moon has been missing for a long while. Wonder where it might have gotten off to?

Of course in Eberron the thirteenth moon has been missing for a long while. Wonder where it might have gotten off to?

Damn Thats genius!
Sweet ideas overall. One of the benefits of having the steamtech start up in the Mournlands is an excuse to keep it steam/clockwork/slave powered; magic being unreliable, at best. As for your coglayer strolling into eberron (and players strolling out), may I suggest the old Mists of Ravenloft trick? Been trying to incorporate dragonmech into ravenloft the last few days, and it can fit very flavourfully, with a few twists.

The walking city is in the Mark of Death novel series.

_________________The only difference between a mage and a young boy’s pockets is that you’ll find more candy in the child’s
-someone not me

From what I've figured so far, I think Ravenloft would work best with smaller mechs. I'd say nothing bigger than gargantuan. Huge fits the niche nicely.
A party in a larger mech gains a feeling of safety, protection and power.
But when you've got three of those characters hanging off the sides of a small mech, all close to the ground, with the pilot the only one behind metal, that fear slides right back in. Not so invulnerable now, are you?

Works for the mournlands too, I guess.

_________________The only difference between a mage and a young boy’s pockets is that you’ll find more candy in the child’s
-someone not me

That would be Haunted Jurgen, a necromantic mech found in the Mech Manual. One of the corpses its creator used wasn't quite done with its mortal business, and it broke free of his control. Now the mech is an independent thing, moving across the land under the control of a restless ghost, hunting and hunted by the necromancer who created it.

From what I've figured so far, I think Ravenloft would work best with smaller mechs. I'd say nothing bigger than gargantuan. Huge fits the niche nicely. A party in a larger mech gains a feeling of safety, protection and power. But when you've got three of those characters hanging off the sides of a small mech, all close to the ground, with the pilot the only one behind metal, that fear slides right back in. Not so invulnerable now, are you?

Works for the mournlands too, I guess.

Generally I agree about smaller mechs. But each realm of Ravenloft has its lord, and every lord needs a good stronghold. The lord of RavenMech should live in maybe not a citymech, but a much larger mech. Because I'd want to use a Ravenloftian gear forest.

That would be Haunted Jurgen, a necromantic mech found in the Mech Manual. One of the corpses its creator used wasn't quite done with its mortal business, and it broke free of his control. Now the mech is an independent thing, moving across the land under the control of a restless ghost, hunting and hunted by the necromancer who created it.

Wasn't there another mech that served a haunted-house like function? I seem to remember that it was one of those Irontooth mechs...

Generally I agree about smaller mechs. But each realm of Ravenloft has its lord, and every lord needs a good stronghold. The lord of RavenMech should live in maybe not a citymech, but a much larger mech. Because I'd want to use a Ravenloftian gear forest.

Very good. I was talking specifically about PC mechs, which I probably should have stated. How would you put a ravenloftian spin on a gear forest?

_________________The only difference between a mage and a young boy’s pockets is that you’ll find more candy in the child’s
-someone not me

Of course in Eberron the thirteenth moon has been missing for a long while. Wonder where it might have gotten off to?

Damn Thats genius! Sweet ideas overall. One of the benefits of having the steamtech start up in the Mournlands is an excuse to keep it steam/clockwork/slave powered; magic being unreliable, at best. As for your coglayer strolling into eberron (and players strolling out), may I suggest the old Mists of Ravenloft trick? Been trying to incorporate dragonmech into ravenloft the last few days, and it can fit very flavourfully, with a few twists.

The walking city is in the Mark of Death novel series.

Actually I was planning on using the plane of Mirrors to connect alternate realities. That would also give my players access to other settings without being able to bring a lot of equipment with them (unless they want to make a really big enchanted mirror).

The way I see it, a mirror of opposition has the planar trait of creating a double of anyone, same as the plane of mirrors. Therefore a mirror of opposition is actually a portal to that plane. Once they are aware of its existence they can research the spell to turn any masterwork mirror into a portal (Manual of the Planes, I forget the spell name), if they wish, or just use the mirror of opposition the coglayer falls through.

I've never looked at the Ravenloft setting, so I have no idea what the mists are about.

As for slave power in the Mournlands, since warforged never become fatigued or need sleep, that is a great idea. Sure beats trying to get a bunch of orcs to work together! Steam and clockwork would be just the same as on Highpoint. I can totally see a warforged taking Steamborg levels. As a DM I would personally skip the Lose Self rolls, since the warforged is already completely artificial parts from the start.

The thing is, though, that my 15th level players are on a small island in the Lazar Principalities. The island was concealed within the "dead grey mist", which has been vanquished along with Tamoreus from the Stormwrack environmental supplement. They have just saved an 18th level wizard from his mind controlling Yuan-Ti girlfriend and her Succubus "sister". This wizard is the core D&D equivalent of a Constructor and has creation feats including craft construct. His castle is guarded primarily by Dread Guards of his own construction along with three Nimblewrights and a handful of Brass/Stone/Iron Golems. If my players pass up the opportunity to delve into the new technology, then the dwarven coglayer is in the perfect place to brainstorm with the human wizard and cross-pollenate ideas. I may have them travel to Korranberg for further training and education with the gnomes before implementing the new technology in Eberron. That way I can logically combine both methods into the new stuff while maintaining a sense of realism.

But if the Lord of Blades were to get wind of this and kidnap one or both of them.... ...but that would be another adventure, don't you think?

Of course in Eberron the thirteenth moon has been missing for a long while. Wonder where it might have gotten off to? :wink:

Damn :D Thats genius! Sweet ideas overall. One of the benefits of having the steamtech start up in the Mournlands is an excuse to keep it steam/clockwork/slave powered; magic being unreliable, at best. As for your coglayer strolling into eberron (and players strolling out), may I suggest the old Mists of Ravenloft trick? Been trying to incorporate dragonmech into ravenloft the last few days, and it can fit very flavourfully, with a few twists.

The walking city is in the Mark of Death novel series.

Actually I was planning on using the plane of Mirrors to connect alternate realities. That would also give my players access to other settings without being able to bring a lot of equipment with them (unless they want to make a really big enchanted mirror).

The way I see it, a mirror of opposition has the planar trait of creating a double of anyone, same as the plane of mirrors. Therefore a mirror of opposition is actually a portal to that plane. Once they are aware of its existence they can research the spell to turn any masterwork mirror into a portal (Manual of the Planes, I forget the spell name), if they wish, or just use the mirror of opposition the coglayer falls through.

I've never looked at the Ravenloft setting, so I have no idea what the mists are about.

As for slave power in the Mournlands, since warforged never become fatigued or need sleep, that is a great idea. Sure beats trying to get a bunch of orcs to work together! Steam and clockwork would be just the same as on Highpoint. I can totally see a warforged taking Steamborg levels. As a DM I would personally skip the Lose Self rolls, since the warforged is already completely artificial parts from the start.

The thing is, though, that my 15th level players are on a small island in the Lazar Principalities. The island was concealed within the "dead grey mist", which has been vanquished along with Tamoreus from the Stormwrack environmental supplement. They have just saved an 18th level wizard from his mind controlling Yuan-Ti girlfriend and her Succubus "sister". This wizard is the core D&D equivalent of a Constructor and has creation feats including craft construct. His castle is guarded primarily by Dread Guards of his own construction along with three Nimblewrights and a handful of Brass/Stone/Iron Golems. If my players pass up the opportunity to delve into the new technology, then the dwarven coglayer is in the perfect place to brainstorm with the human wizard and cross-pollenate ideas. I may have them travel to Korranberg for further training and education with the gnomes before implementing the new technology in Eberron. That way I can logically combine both methods into the new stuff while maintaining a sense of realism.

But if the Lord of Blades were to get wind of this and kidnap one or both of them.... :twisted: ...but that would be another adventure, don't you think?

Sounds pretty darn fun to me, but I have to ask:

Does anyone actually know if Warforged could become steamborgs? Do they even need to drink? I'm vague on their exact biological requirements because I don't own any Eberron books.

(On the random side, someone showed me a picture of a Warforged pimp. Cane, gold ornamentation, cape, wide-brimmed hat (with a feather in it) and a human woman hanging off of each arm).

A Warforged steamborg would be cool. But you might have to answer where the engine gets the water from.

Rule 1 with warforged: Except where it specifically states otherwise in their racial description, treat them just like you would any other race. They don't need to drink, but they are perfectly capable of doing so. And just like how a human, or elf or dwarf, body cannot supply the necessary amount of water for the engine itself, the water would come from an outside source. Just fluff-rule it that rather than drinking the water, the warforged pours it directly into the steam engine.

In Ravenloft, the mists are crazy. They are basically the GM's tool to do weird and wacky things. The mists surround and connect "domains", little kingdoms where things are relatively normal. They can move the players, along with anything else, about at a whim. Say the players enter the mists at point A, they could exit the mists a thousand kilometers away after a two day march (not by their own choice, mind you). That isn't the greatest description. Try looking it up somewhere.

_________________The only difference between a mage and a young boy’s pockets is that you’ll find more candy in the child’s
-someone not me

Hmm, I wouldn't go so far as to do anything rules-wise, but make the gear forest more run down and creepy. Try to put things you'd find in Strahd's crypt into the gear forest...cobwebs all over non-moving parts. Some kind of sludge coming out of a broken pipe...wait, that's not sludge it's blood! Even though everything is running, make everything rusty and clanking. A large pile of corpses sits next to the boiler to use as fuel. That sort of thing.

And the haunted mech I was thinking of was the Oni, from the Irontooth chapter of the Mech manual.

In Ravenloft, the mists are crazy. They are basically the GM's tool to do weird and wacky things. The mists surround and connect "domains", little kingdoms where things are relatively normal. They can move the players, along with anything else, about at a whim. Say the players enter the mists at point A, they could exit the mists a thousand kilometers away after a two day march (not by their own choice, mind you). That isn't the greatest description. Try looking it up somewhere.

Actually, sounds like my idea for a sanity system, based on Eternal Darkness.

It's essentially an excuse for the DM to mess the players around. They get low sanity, the DM gets to lie and describe stuff that isn't real, ranging from bits of creepy description--like phantom footsteps--to screwing with the players--like saying a door's locked when it's not--to full-blown brain-searing hallucinations about attacks of horrific monsters and so on.

It probably works better in the game than it would in an RP session, actually.

Speaking of the mournlands, there is talk among warforged of a warforged god, whose body is slowly being built in the mournlands. Imagine the possibilities. I made this one for a kind of campaign capstone.

The Lord of Blades, a powerful Vassal of Dotrek, finding mech blueprints somewhere in Xen'dric. He is now slowly building a clockwork army ready to make his attack on the other races of Khorvair, starting the assaut my making their way to Sharn with the godforged, most likely a city-mech F, as the focal point of the force. The PCs couldn't possibly defeat a mech that size, so they would have to get inside, defeat the Lord of Blades himself, and then find a way to disable the godforged before it reaches the city.

Speaking of the mournlands, there is talk among warforged of a warforged god, whose body is slowly being built in the mournlands. Imagine the possibilities. I made this one for a kind of campaign capstone.

The Lord of Blades, a powerful Vassal of Dotrek, finding mech blueprints somewhere in Xen'dric. He is now slowly building a clockwork army ready to make his attack on the other races of Khorvair, starting the assaut my making their way to Sharn with the godforged, most likely a city-mech F, as the focal point of the force. The PCs couldn't possibly defeat a mech that size, so they would have to get inside, defeat the Lord of Blades himself, and then find a way to disable the godforged before it reaches the city.

Interesting idea.

Personally, I'd be throwing monkey wrenches everywhere once I got in the gear forests of the Godforged.

Any idea what the Disable Device DC is for a City Mech F, if it's assumed you're just smashing everything you come across? I could probably make an acid-thrower, or something to do that. Or invest in a bag of holding full of rust and magnet bombs.

Edit: I suppose a better question would be: How long would it take you to break a city mech by following the teachings of the Glod Glodsson School of Mech Sabotage (School Motto: "Smash it!")?

Admittedly, you'd have security rushing in at every moment, but there's only so much room for them to stand, and if you're badass enough to take out someone with a title like 'Lord of Blades', you probably go through ordinary guards like a can of prunes through a short octagenarian.

I'd be more worried about the Coglings shooting me in the back of the head. But, in the case of the Godforged, they don't have coglings, do they?

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